After following guides to get different renderers/transcoders going to play pretty much anything, the only negative that I've found with it is upgrading. A lot of the times, an upgrade to the software will result in previously playable files becoming unreadable by the PS3.

So I've stuck with the old saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." You find a version that works, and stick with it.

I actually have the same problems every day... Just wrapped differently.
A LOT of comments on here have helped me open my eyes a bit. I've taken the more "concerned" responses ("you're too old", "you're not in love with it because you're not doing it") with a grain of salt, and just as another reason to look at my career path more closely.
In the end, I just have to do it. That's all there is to it.

This probably hits the nail on the head... The thing is (and I may have only glossed over it in the OP) that I DO have a background in programming. Most of my time at Cégep was spent programming... But I graduated from that program in '05 (I'm still a spring chicken, I would hope, at 30).
So, while I've been "out" for a while, I do know the basics, would pick up OOP pretty easily again, and be able to continue on building experience. The problem is, there are SO MANY CHOICES to make, which is why I asked the original question.
Gateway language fits that scope pretty well, tbh.

I have done.NET programming, but that was back in College. I was also deep in SQL and ASP dev for a little while, but then I turned to the hardware side, and have now become an "admin systems technician"... Which is basically glorified help desk.
Thanks for the answer, it seems to be in accord with a few people on here, though I'm guessing a lot of it boils down to personal interest...

It's not that it isn't "my thing", for not having done it in 6 years... It's that the nature of the job that I've held hasn't lent much time to it, and I never really jumped into it during my off-time. That was spent gaming and playing the bagpipes.
Just goes to show how priorities can change over the course of one's lifetime.

CanadianSchism writes: So, I've been in the public sector for the past 6 years. I started off doing my work study in web design and a bit of support, eventually going through the interview process to fill in a data processing technician post, and getting the job.

The first four years of my work life were spent in various schools, fixing computers, implementing new hardware, rolling out updates/ghosting labs, troubleshooting basic network and printer problems, etc. I was eventually asked to work on the administrative information systems with an analyst, which I've been doing for the past 2 years. That's consisted of program support, installing updates to the pay/financial/purchasing/tax/energy systems, taking backups on SQL servers, etc.

I've never had the opportunity to take time for myself, and jump back into my first love: programming. I've picked up Powershell books (have two here at the office), but haven't gotten anything down yet, as there are always other projects that come up and whittle my attention to learning a language down to zilch.

This new year will see a change in that, however. I'll be setting aside an hour every day to devote to learning a new language, in the eventual hope that I can leave this company (take a sabbatical) and hop into the private sector for a few years. I'd like to do this for a few reasons: I'm feeling stagnant and bored in this seat, there's no upwards movement, I really want to program but I can't in this job, and finally I'm making about 20k less than what I should be.

My question to you all is, what language should I start with, to learn and get back into the principles of programming, that will help me build a personal portfolio, but will also lend to learning other languages. At this point, I'm not sure if I'd like to make/maintain custom applications, or if back-end web programming would be more interesting, or any of the other niches out there. I'm just having trouble taking that first step, as there's so much.

So, I've been in the public sector for the past 6 years. I started off doing my work study in web design and a bit of support, eventually going through the interview process to fill in a data processing technician post, and getting the job.